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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

not to pay their bastard parking fine.

112 replies

LEMmingaround · 06/10/2014 12:11

Bloody aldi (who i normslly love soo much) have just sent us a £70 parking fine for being too long in their car park Angry

We were half an hour over the 1.5 hour limit.

What happened was i did the shopping while dp took dd to a swing park ten minutes walk away. I was only 40 minutes in the shop but don't drive so couldn't drive to park and obviously had a weeks shopping so dp left car in the car park. I walked to park- lovely sunny day so we stayed a while. Totally forgot the 1.5 hour parking limit.

The problem is could have in that time walked into town.

Do we just pay up or is it worth an appeal??

I have the receipt from the shop. The irony being we were really skint on that day so did frugal aldi shop. Would have been chesper to shop in fucking waitroseHmm

OP posts:
CommanderShepard · 06/10/2014 12:14

As I understand it - and I am not a lawyer - if it's a privately owned car park the fine is not legally enforceable. If it's council owned, it is payable.

KatoPotato · 06/10/2014 12:14

Is it from Aldi or parking eye (or similar?)

Nancy66 · 06/10/2014 12:15

Write to Aldi head office. They seem to wipe out most of their customer's parking fines.

Lozzie12 · 06/10/2014 12:16

Poor you.
We have a massive Tesco near us with various other shops like Sports direct, Next, restaurants,etc. I'm always aware it would be really easy to go over parking time when you're using car park to use their shops!

I think it's always worth appealing, you've nothing to lose. Good luck x

Shard1066 · 06/10/2014 12:16

Appeal - first to them and then to the independent appeal process (which costs them about £30-£40, I believe). There are various Parking Eye threads in the MN archives that give tips on what to do and say. They are very aggressive in sending letters, but I think rarely if ever go beyond that. The important thing to remember is that, unlike the police or local authorities, they cannot impose fines as a sanction for parking offences, so they need to try to allege a contract.

Imnotaslimjim · 06/10/2014 12:17

Look on the money saving expert website. The rules have changed on how to deal with them but they are not enforcable

Original poster
LEMmingaround · 06/10/2014 12:18

Parking-eye on behalf of aldi i guess. Will aldi head office have any say? The trouble is if we pay in 14 days its 40 but an appeal will take us over so will go up to 70. We can't afford 40!!!

OP posts:
MidniteScribbler · 06/10/2014 12:18

So you went overtime and weren't even using the carpark to shop in their store for that time. So why shouldn't you be fined?

Original poster
LEMmingaround · 06/10/2014 12:20

Yes we shopped in the store rtft

OP posts:
NK5BM3 · 06/10/2014 12:20

Parking eye - you can ignore. They will bug and bug you and threaten all sorts, but you ignore. We did that - shopped at m&s and then had lunch there. I went to all lengths, got m&s involved, they rang parking eye, had the receipts etc but they wouldn't budge. In the end, they did stop bugging me. It was over 3 years ago. And I was only 10 min late.

Go on money supermarket expert... There's lots of threads about this.

3littlefrogs · 06/10/2014 12:20

Look on the Martyn Lewis website.
All the correct advice is on there.

Nancy66 · 06/10/2014 12:20

www.facebook.com/AldiUK/posts/546361388758001

Daria01 · 06/10/2014 12:21

I'd send a letter with a photocopy of the receipt attached to it first to see if you can appeal to their better nature.

If you have no luck there, just tell them that you know it not to be legally enforceable and that's the end of it as far as you're concerned. (Unless of course it's a council owned car park, but I get the impression that it is not.)

Daria01 · 06/10/2014 12:21

X post sorry. Definitely don't pay

MidniteScribbler · 06/10/2014 12:21

I can rtft. You were in the store for 40 minutes. The remainder of the time you were down the park.

isitsnowingyet · 06/10/2014 12:23

MidnightScribbler not very kind. She had done her shopping in Aldi.

And yes, it is a rip-off and I would definitely not pay it, and be shopping elsewhere, and writing to Aldi

CommanderShepard · 06/10/2014 12:30

Makes you wonder what they'd do if your car broke down. Or you were taken ill while shopping and were taken to hospital in an ambulance.

pinkdelight · 06/10/2014 12:31

We're still getting nasty letters from debt collection agencies about a parking fine from two years ago at a leisure centre (should be council-owned but since they're managed by companies now the car parks are private). It was a ridiculous fine (parking outside of the white lines, as was the entire row of cars hence I didn't even notice) so we refused to pay. They may not be legally enforceable but boy, they don't let it drop. Stick to your guns but be prepared for a looooong war of attrition. My tip would be to write appealing the fine and stating your case in the strongest terms, but then don't engage when they hand the case over to other agencies to chase. I get the sense that if you communicate with them, they pursue you more as they see you as more likely to cave in and pay. Utter bastards. YANBU!

As an aside, I recently visited a new giant Tesco near us and was appalled to see their parking system has no barriers or tickets, so if you're in a rush or just don't pay attention to the parking signage then you'd drive in and out assuming it was free parking and automatically be fined. Horrible system, where they photograph your car on the way in and then you have to get a voucher at the tills or else you'll be tracked down and fined. When other local supermarket car parks simply have two hours free parking - and similar signage so people might assume it was the same deal at Tescos - I find it horribly insidious and will not be going back there again.

Original poster
LEMmingaround · 06/10/2014 12:35

40 minutes to checkout then more time tp repack the shopping so prob an hour in total. Yes we were half an hour over. Will shop in lidl in future

OP posts:
TheStarsLookDown · 06/10/2014 12:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OnlyLovers · 06/10/2014 12:39

You went quite a bit over the limit –25%. And it wasn't an emergency or anything close –you just forgot.

YABU.

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 06/10/2014 12:42

I wish people would stop saying "they're not legally enforceable". They can be. It is a matter of contract law, unlike for council parking fines though.

As others have said try money saving expert, or pepipoo, for proper advice.

You could just ignore, but if you are unlucky they might take you to small claims court. It does happen, and they do win sometimes.

PrivateJourney · 06/10/2014 12:45

I expect there are ways you could get out of it but I'm surprised how many people are telling you you should. You knew about the fines when you left the car but forgot. That's unfortunate but it's not the shop's fault, their carpark isn't there to provide free parking for park users.

arethereanyleftatall · 06/10/2014 12:45

I think all this 'it's not legally enforceable, so I can break the rules' attitude really wrong. Ditto ideas and tips on how to get out if paying a fine you absolutely should have got. Where will it end? How would you feel if you can't get a parking space in aldi because all the spaces are filled with people at the park, cis after all, it's not legally enforceable.
I feel sorry for you, but you do the crime you should pay up.

Original poster
LEMmingaround · 06/10/2014 12:47

The irony is i felt really unwell so was badgering dp to leave. Dd doing the five more minutes half hourthing. Had i remembered about bastard car park id have had leverage

OP posts: